Just a copy
by Mindmaze
Summary: What if the Doctor met a different Clara with a whole new personality and background in "The Bells of Saint John" instead of the one we know and love. How will this change things, and how will new Clara react when she and the Doctor realize she's not the original?


I know, I know…I shouldn't really be starting another story especially with my slow progress on the other ones I already have out but I just couldn't help myself. The idea was just too good to not post. See I like Oswin, I also like past Clara but I'm not that keen on present Clara, I feel she lacks something. So I decided to write this story from the episode "The Bells of Saint John" upwards. The plot itself won't change just the Doctor will meet a different Clara with a different personality and background therefore how she deals with each situation will be different. AU Clara and how she affects the storyline within.

….

The Doctor hadn't meant to stop. Not this time at least.

Currently he was in middle of sulking, (not that he would ever admit that, in his opinion he was brooding which as far as he was concerned was completely different) after another failed attempt of finding any trace of latest riddle Miss Oswald.

So far he'd had little luck with his search which had left him feeling rather disappointed so naturally when he passed by a small park he couldn't resist the childish pull to go sit on the swings, a small part of him hoping that by swaying on said item his mind would somehow become more at rest, much like a small baby being comforted by the gentle rocking of their cradle.

He hadn't intended to divert from his destination but the sound of whimpering made him pause in place.

His advanced Time Lord hearing made him able to locate the barely audible sniffles which went undetected by the other humans in the park. His head turned towards his left where his eyes focused on a small figure sitting underneath the slide at the far end of the park which was subsequently nowhere near the swings.

Even as he hesitated his feet turned in the direction of the slide as his subconscious thoughts nudged him to go investigate the sounds which clearly belonged to a child.

With a small sigh he sent one last longing look at the swings before heading over towards the slide, he never had been able to ignore the sounds of children crying. Hadn't Amy pointed that out to him?

Amy…

He shook his head dispelling such thoughts, even now the pain still felt achingly raw. He supposed she had been like the straw that broke the camel's back…he was just so tired of losing people.

He should have learned his lesson in his last form, hadn't he vowed no more companions? Yet he'd been unable to leave her, Amelia Pond the little girl whose life didn't make sense, whose face was the first he had noticed in this regeneration.

He guess he had hoped that his new regeneration would be a fresh start and that things would somehow end up differently…

Now he'd found himself another mystery girl, Clara Oswald the impossible girl…

He knew he should leave it alone, he didn't want to drag someone else down because of his selfishness but he couldn't help it.

It just didn't add up which naturally meant he couldn't resist the mystery that she presented. Plus a small part of him, no matter how irrational hoped he'd found his answer to the curse that seemed to linger on all his companions.

Clara Oswald the woman twice dead and yet not, perhaps she would be the companion who he finally wouldn't lose. She did keep popping up after all.

He allowed his thoughts to slip away as he crouched down a few feet away from the small child he could now tell was a girl and for a moment simply observed her. Her knees were drawn to her chest and her arms lay wrapped around them, he noticed she was quite petite even for her age. Her head lay facing down on her knees and her brown waves cascaded around her head blocking him from seeing her face, it also meant she had yet to notice his presence.

Despite his own problems he was completely okay with delaying his search if it meant he could stop this one girl's tears. It was just in his nature to do so.

Clearing his throat he curiously asked her, "Why are you crying?"

He mentally slapped himself for his lack of tact as she jerked up, her hair flying wildly around her head as she brought her hands up to wipe her eyes even as she defensively retorted, "I'm not crying."

"Ah, my mistake" he apologised before adding, "clearly your puffy eyes must be caused by some sort of allergy" a smirk flickering at the corner of his lips before his eyes softened and he asked, "Are you sure you're alright?"

His initial response had caused the girl to blush, clearly embarrassed at having been caught out before her eyes widened seemingly startled by his gentle tone when he queried for her well fare.

Her brown eyes grew curious before she looked down at her knee's murmuring, "Not supposed to talk to strangers."

His lips twitched again at her stubbornness. Well at least she wasn't crying anymore, that was an improvement despite the fact she was still moping (not that he was one to talk) though he still wanted to find out what was wrong.

"Very right you are, all sorts of strange people out there" he answered before adding, "But the way I see it that sort of thinking will get you nowhere."

She once again looked up at him, her eyebrows pulled down into a confused frown prompting him to continue "Everyone starts out as strangers at first, sometimes we have to take a leap of faith and just trust…how else would you make any friends?"

She blinked at him and he could read it on her face how she contemplated his words. She glanced down at her hands drifting off into silence and for a moment he thought he had failed in his attempt to get her to open up.

This thought was disproven however when she changed topics completely, asking him "Are you lonely?" thus successfully taking him by surprise.

His mouth moved up and down but was unable to form any words having not been expecting such a question, she had completely thrown him.

Unable to figure out what she was getting at he closed his mouth and cleared his throat deciding to buy himself sometime by deflecting the question with one of his own, "What makes you ask?"

She shrugged her shoulders in reply before bluntly stating, "You're here, with me."

Again he was left wondering on just how to get out of this one but before he could try put together any sort of answer she spoke up again, luckily saving him from such a fate.

Once again removing her gaze from his she stated, "I'm lonely to."

Ignoring the "to" bit on the end he felt his eyes widen at her confession having not expected her to open up to him. Did this mean her previous question had been some sort of ploy so that she could confide in him?

Shaking the thoughts away he instead asked her, "Is that why you were upset?" his tone soft as he shuffled closer to her.

"No. Well…sort of I guess" she admitted whilst hugging her legs even tighter refusing to make eye contact.

"What do you mean by that?" he gently pressed trying to get to the root of the problem.

That was when he noticed it.

When she had hugged her legs closer some of her sleeve had been pulled back a little bit to reveal a darkening blue bruise staining her otherwise clear skin.

His eyes narrowed on it and he couldn't help but ask, "Are you being bullied?"

Her sharp inhale of breath and the speed at which she snapped her head up to him as well as her clearly dilated eyes was all the answer he needed.

Her eyes were startled but questioning before they followed his gaze down to the bruise on her arm where she hurriedly tried to cover it up saying, "It's nothing."

He cut her off by holding out the palm of his hand to her and saying "May I?" his eye's imploring her as she slowly lifted her gaze from her sleeve and to his face.

She audibly gulped before placing her arm in his hand whilst saying, "I just fell over."

The excuse fell on deaf ears as he gently turned her arm so he could get a better look at the bruise causing him to frown as he examined it closer.

Giving her a sympathetic yet scolding look he gestured to her arm with a nod of his head, "this type of bruising pattern on the back of your arm can only be received through a defensive position which people usually slip into when holding up their arms to protect themselves, typically their torso if I'm not mistaken but I-…" he stopped himself before he could begin to rant, giving his head a shake before releasing her arm.

Once again she hurriedly pulled down her sleeve but this time cradled her arm in her other hand looking down guilty at the incriminating bruise before she spoke up, her voice becoming but a whisper "they pick on me because I get good grades and call me names because I'm clever."

Now usually if a person were to bluntly call themselves clever he would presume they were being a bit arrogant, he himself had acted as such in the past so he knew from experience however the way she had said the word…she had said it almost as if her intellect was a curse.

He heard her sniffle and decided to speak up, "Well that's just stupid. There's nothing wrong with getting good grades, sounds to me like they could be jealous."

By this point she had once again looked up to face him obviously surprised by his words, her eyes looking a bit red.

Continuing he added, "You shouldn't be ashamed of something like that; they clearly don't know what they're talking about. You shouldn't be sad because you're smart, you should be thankful. In the future it may even serve you well."

She frowned at that giving her eyes a small wipe before saying, "But your smart and your sad."

Blinking once again puzzled at where she had found bases for such a presumption he echoed his earlier words, "What makes you think that?"

Now that the attention was no longer on her own problems she seemed a bit calmer as she nodded at his attire, "Apart from the fact you dress like a professor-..."

"Oi!" he couldn't help his indignant reply unsure if that was an insult or not as he added, "this outfit's cool" his hand self-consciously tweaking his bow tie.

She looked less than convinced by what he had said and instead continued on with her original statement adding, "…and your eyes gave it away"

"My eyes?" he questioned perplexed, what was that supposed to mean?

"They're the eyes of someone intelligent, I can tell…they also look really sad" she added as an afterthought whilst staring up into said eyes.

He wasn't sure what to say to that and tilted his head at the girl thoughtfully; she really was quite perceptive for a kid even if she had mistaken the reason for his current mood.

"I'm not sad because I'm clever" he told her bemusedly, watching as her expression changed to one of curiosity.

"Then why are you?" she asked her eyes no longer full of unshed tears though her voice remained quiet as if she was afraid of speaking any louder for fear her voice might crack.

His gaze went distant as he looked over her shoulder and at the trees that lay just beyond the park, his eyes unfocused as he recalled his reason for even being here in the first place. For a moment there he had been able to distract himself but now it was all coming back.

Still staring off he quietly replied, "I lost someone…a friend" before sighing and running a hand through his fringe as he continued, "I met her twice and I lost her both times, and now I don't think I'll ever find her again."

He wasn't sure why he was telling her this; she was after all just a child. Perhaps it was because she had proved herself to be unusually astute for one so young or maybe he just needed to get it off his chest and who better than a stranger to listen to his woes, a child especially would prove non-judgemental due to their innocence.

Either way he felt none of the usual pressure he did when revealing something personal, instead he only felt a twinge of bitterness at the reminder of his failure in finding any sort of clue regarding Clara.

"That is sad" the girl spoke up agreeing with his reason behind his mood, an unusually solemn nod look on her face for one so young before she added, "Do you think you'll find her?"

"Don't know, I hope so" he replied with a slight twinkle in his eyes as he now faced her getting lost in one of his rants as he added, "the first two times I met her, I just sort of bumped into her, so I thought maybe if I just wandered a bit I might bump into her again. You know like destiny, sort of."

"That's rubbish" the girl bluntly replied causing him to give a rueful laugh.

"Yeah, I think it probably is…but you have to agree it is a lot more productive than just sitting about and doing nothing at all" he spoke up with a pointed look at the end towards her.

This caused the girl to blush and look down at her hands which were now resting on top of her knee's as she began to move them nervously.

"I guess so…" she muttered, apparently grasping his message of taking action to deal with ones problems. Not that he was one to talk but he had hoped the advice would be of some use to her.

"So…basically I need to make a plan and then prove myself with my own to hands" she added whilst lifting her gaze to meet his before her eyes widen in realisation and she added with a small smile, "just like I did with my dream!"

It was the first smile he had seen on her and it warmed his hearts to see that her mood had improved so much that he easily returned it with one of his own as he spoke up, "yeah, if it makes the point easier to get across."

He paused as the last part of her sentence registered and he added curiously, "What's your dream then?"

She visibly perked up at the mention of this, her whole body shifting so that she was now sitting with her legs crossed and her arms in her lap as she explained, "I'm gonna own my own bakery someday and all the nice kids can have free cakes every day. That way I can share my happiness with them!"

He felt a soft grin spread across his face at the childish goal, especially the part about the free cakes.

"That's a wonderful dream, I'm sure you'll reach it" he told her his grin still in place.

"Uh-huh" she confirmed happily and then added, "I got it all planned out. I think you should do that to. Plan out a better way to find your friend so then you have something to aim for rather than leaving it to fate."

"Sounds like a good idea" he told her somewhat wryly, only a child could make it sound that simple. "Looks like we both have to stop letting things slide" he added with an exaggerated grin as he glanced at the apparatus they were sitting under.

She giggle a little at this before speaking up, "Your silly" making his own smile stretch.

Giving a nod of her head in that way only children can do when they're trying to be serious but just end up looking cute she added, "but thanks anyways, I'll try actually do something about them now instead of just crying about it."

With another nod she crawled out from under the slide before turning to him and saying, "Thanks for the advice Mister, I better get going now though as it's getting late."

Standing up himself he stretched his arms above his head before giving her a wave saying, "Goodbye" and then fixing his bow tie when her back was turned, satisfied with a job well done.

Just as he was getting ready to leave his attention was diverted by the girl as she looked over her shoulder whilst she was running out of the park yelling, "I hope you find your friend!"

"So do I" he replied even though she was out of earshot, instead giving her another wave and nod of his head before he decided to head back to his Tardis.

His mind was whirring with ideas as he made his way to the familiar blue box; after all he had some planning to do.

….

Meanwhile a little girl ran along the streets towards the orphanage that lay just up the road, her thoughts surprisingly not on the fact she had broken curfew but instead centred on the funny man's words who she had met earlier.

She decided what he had said was right, it was better to actually do something than just accept the problem. From now on there would be no more feeling sorry for herself. Instead she decided she was going to do something about it and end her bullying with her own hands.

The same hands that would one day help her achieve her dream were surely strong enough to help her overcome such an obstacle. Yes it was decided, she would do this or her name wasn't Clarissa Oswald!

….

Okay so not much I know, it's more of a taster. Scene replaces young Clara and Doctor's talk on the swing set from the Bells of Saint John. Believe it or not this one conversation with the Doctor will change young Clarissa from the sweet girl in more ways than the Doctor intended. Next chapter will be posted in a couple days so until then, Geronimo!


End file.
